Every end has a beginning. Just like every solution has a problem.

Some people tend to just breeze into your life out of nowhere and turn it upside down. I like such people. They walk out with equal ease and nothing ever feels the same again. I've had my share of such people. Maybe I've done the same to someone else's life. I hope I have...
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All throughout my life, I've been taught to be ambitious and dream big. A friend, on the other hand, was always taught to be content with whatever came her way and to accept her destiny gracefully. She was never the ambitious sort. I was always dreaming of making it big and doing everything I could to be an achiever. Today, as I struggle to make peace with all the unexpected changes in my life, she is unperturbed with the changes in hers. It makes me wonder if I'm doing it all wrong because it definitely doesn't feel right. Its messing up my mind right now. Like a badly done sketch that just cannot be erased and redone. Exasperating.
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The sands of time have been replaced by squelchy mud....

I would have made an excellent, top notch boy scout. Why? Because I am always prepared. But I didn't learn this valuable piece of wisdom from a scout guide. My Pa taught me this. He told me, "There are going to be lots of incidents in life that you will not be prepared for and some which you haven't remotely expected to happen. They will happen and it is always best to be prepared. Always." I am not the obedient girl my parents always wanted and much to their chagrin, neither is my younger sister. But I have hundreds of little words of advice piled up in my head somewhere and when something goes wrong, the pile unfolds and I remember everything my parents had taught me or warned me about. I also remember a very important line my Ma used very often. She would advice me about something and then follow it up with, "You will not understand this now. Hopefully one day you will and then you will remember my words." And when the pile unfolds, I always remember her words.
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There are days when I look back at my life and I realise that things weren't supposed to be the way they are today. I had imagined everything to be so different. There are other days when I look at myself in the mirror and I cannot recognize the woman staring back at me. The face is the same. The eyes are different.
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I have to write two letters. One will be addressed to my Nanu and the other to my Dadu. They are champion letter writers and they are the only people I know who still communicate through the good old postal service. Sometimes I sit down and wonder how the post office looks like today. When I was little, it was bustling with activity. People had no other ways to communicate. The postal employees were such important people. I wonder if they still feel the same. Do they curse the internet or have they just resignedly accepted their fate? Must go ask them and write some letters and postcards while at it...
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'Tore Bina' from Kahaani is my current favourite song. Love it. I also like Ekla Cholo Re from the same film. But I prefer the original version that my Ma used to sing for me. I am one of the privileged few who fell asleep  to the beautiful sounds of a mother's lullaby. I still remember the lyrics after all these years. She used to sing 'Nanhi kali' and 'Chun Chun karti aayi chidiya'. My Dadi sang to me in Marathi. 'Ye ga ye ga vithabai' and 'limbonichya zhaada maage'. Ma refuses to sing lullabies anymore. She says I'm way too old for them. I'm not. I'll never be.
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Do this...do that...do...Yankee Doodle Doodle Dooo....

I hate how I've neglected my blog for so long. Blame it on my super hectic work schedule and rapidly approaching deadlines. I like being busy but I also love complaining about how 'busy' I am. I dunno, it just gives you an edge when compared to other relatively 'free' people. Are you free? Nope, I'm really busy. Sounds all important and professional. Like you're doing your bit to save the world or something when in reality you're just drafting a particularly boring conveyance deed that isn't going to change anything in this world. Busy busy busy...Yeah right.
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P the mongrel is currently sulking royally. She refuses to come out and sit with the rest of us i.e. Me, HM and H when we watch tv or have dinner or such other stuff. She just sits alone in the bedroom, moping and making sad puppy faces. I've checked her for fever and monitored her eating. She seems fine health wise. I wonder what is the matter with her. Me thinks, we should get a dog whisperer to come and communicate with  her.
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Why is a dumbbell, called a dumbbell? I mean, why? It doesn't look dumb and it definitely isn't a bell. Far from it actually. It annoys me when things don't relate to the names they have. Like pen drive for instance. It isn't a pen, and drive is a verb.Why use it as a noun?
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Someone asked me the other day if I was a judgemental person. Before I could answer, the person had already remarked that I seemed to be so. Oh...kay. That doesn't make ME judgemental, does it? I smiled a lot that day...
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The Phoenix should have been real....

Wow, the more and more I get to know my dogs, the less I like hanging out with people. Dogs just tend to let you be, unless they're hungry and you're in charge of feeding them, in which case they put up a pretty peaceful 'Satyagraha' kind of protest. They wag their tails, do all their tricks and follow you around with a sad puppy face and do everything short of actually begging for food. Which is fine by me. I like people who have basic needs, who are intelligent (like my dogs) and are quite modest about it. Besides dogs can be very profound if they want to and not brag about it like humans do. A dog will not come and declare that he is a dedicated follower of naturopathy and eats only grass to cleanse his system or how sometimes he likes to meditate by quietly staring out of the window and looking at the wonderful birds, trees and other stuff out there. He will not tell you that he believes in Zen philosophy and has achieved the rare state of an empty mind. He will not boast about how he has found peace. Dogs are awesome. Period. We humans are just a big bunch of idiots for them. I'm sure they laugh at us behind our backs.
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Oh yes, we are. If that was true, then I'd be a glutton. Seriously. You should see how much I crave food.

Anyway, I've studied Aristotle and his fellow dudes like Plato and Marx and other cool guys when I was majoring in Political Science. There, I've said it. I have an Honors degree in Political Science, like, what was I actually thinking, right? I have no idea either. I really enjoyed my education though. Arts students always do. We study History, Politics, Literature and it is awesome. I always pitied the science students who always had some entrance exam to worry about, some lab to rush to and a bunch of journals to complete. Also, they did all this with the expression of a dull donkey who'd been asked to pull a cart full of really heavy and ugly stones. Sad.

Women really need to wriggle out of their mental corsets and stay free.

I recently saw a thought provoking ad on TV.
You can catch it on http://www.facebook.com/sftimetochange
The brand is called Stay-Free. Very apt if you ask me. Besides I like the fact that they portray women who are willing to bring about a change. Not just in their own life, but in the world around them as well. Enough said. I really don't want to start sounding like a closet feminist. But since we are on the highly debatable topic of women and change, I really want to share my views on it. There is just one major change I'd like to see in the world around me and that is gender equality in the true sense of the word. Now some of you will just stop reading beyond this point. Nobody wants to hear a woman gushing about how life and especially men have been unfair to her. I'm not like that. If I'm talking about equality, I mean complete and total equality. Which obviously means that I strongly oppose women's reservation, special laws for women and essentially everything that is designed to 'empower' women. Is it just me or does every sensible woman see through all this and realise that all these ways of empowerment are basically hinting at the fact that women are the weaker sex and therefore need something to make them stronger? Its like saying, "I'm a woman, the weaker gender. Cut me some slack, will you?" I don't think women need it. We have been shouting from the rooftops about gender equality, haven't we? Then we should be getting exactly that. Absolute equality. I do understand that earlier, women were part of the downtrodden segment of society and special laws and reservations were required to uplift their status. But its about time that we do away with those 'crutches' as I like to call them, and start walking straight with our head held high. Even our President is a woman now. And if every woman wants to claim proudly that she is doing better than men in almost every field, she should also be able to state that she does so without any concessions. Now equality does not have just one aspect. Social equality is important too. Why do women lust after men who are chivalrous? Men who open doors, pull chairs and do the like to make us feel special? Will opening doors, pulling out chairs and paying for our food make us any less feminine than we are? We have got to stop behaving like the 'damsel in distress'. We have to change this sorry picture that we have painted of ourselves. If a man hits a woman, she cries hoarse and claims that he's harassing her because she's the weaker one. A man may be physically stronger but a woman is definitely capable of protecting herself. She just needs to know how. And it is unfair to the men who get beaten up by their wives. If women can make a big issue about marital abuse, men should be able to do the same. Only then can they both be truly equal. A guy friend once remarked that women are constantly whining about everything. They complain about eve teasing, sexual abuse, two timing boy friends and everything in between. It really got me thinking. Are women really so weak? If yes, then why do we talk about being strong and powerful? Maybe most of us are just unaware of how much we can do and what we are really capable of. It is so easy to talk about change, isn't it? Ask anyone and you will get a long list of things that need to be changed. Corruption, Global warming, The Education System, The Economy, Poverty, Illiteracy... The list is endless. What we forget is that change begins with us. and in order to change the world, we need to change ourselves first. I dedicate this post to all the wonderful and amazing women out there who want to bring about a change. Start with yourself. That is the difficult part. The world will be easier to change.

We really need to start appreciating our Dustbins...Like, really.

I'm a remarkable woman. The only one who knows this is me and that makes me feel kinda special. My ma once told me, you have to die to be praised. Actually she's said this to me more than once, but I don't count repetitions. Anyway, I just don't like the fact that people will criticize you all your life just because they're going to praise you when you're gone. Total BS, I tell you. I've decided to do something about it. I'm going to praise myself every single day. That's it. And all those stupid people out there need to know that I really don't mind being criticised after I'm dead. But I really need some praise while I'm alive. Okies? Good. Everyone should start right away.
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The coffee machine in my office is dispensing a frothy liquid that tastes like coffee but is actually full of little remnants of dead insects. You might find a broken wing or a tiny hairy leg in there. I can imagine a vengeful beetle sitting in there like the demonic barber of fleet street. The tiny insects in the coffee machine go to have a haircut and he just slits their throats and pushes their body into the coffee powder. And we make coffee and drink it. Some sort of Sweeny Todd is sitting in there. Waiting to rescue his Johanna who probably lives in one of our file cabinets. A tiny delicate blue beetle. Pretty and all...
I must be going mad. I should stop drinking this coffee...
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Baaki khabar mein toh, HM is spending a long weekend with his parents while I slog in the office and return home to two extremely jumpy dogs. And since I can't sleep alone in a king size bed, I let H and P share it with me. They take turns sleeping next to me. Last night I woke up next to P who stretched lazily before licking my nose. Cute critter. Anyway, HM is coming home tonight. Just when I was beginning to enjoy the solitude...
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Four legged furry bundles of joy.....

If you live in Pune and you like dogs, and I mean ALL dogs, you have to pay a visit to Jeevraksha. The indefatigable Lila Parulekar has done what most only talk about. She has given a home to more than 300 stray dogs. And as she stays bed ridden with Alzheimers, Parkinsons  and other complex ailments, her dogs roam freely in the 3 acre land surrounding her modest bungalow. The kind woman has kept only one room for herself. The rest of the house is reserved for the dogs who come and go as they please. One can donate food, milk and medicines. Cash donations are not encouraged as they can be easily misused by the workers who are not supervised. But if you really want to donate something, donate your time. The dogs are friendly and loving and more often than not, they just want a loving pat on their head and a few kind words. They are all very sweet and wonderful, each unique in its own way. Ninja, the hairless dog who is suffering from severe scabies will rub his bald head against your leg and beg to be petted. Sweetu, the abandoned pomeranian will wag her tail and welcome you. Pari will jump with joy and all the puppies will tumble over themselves, eager to get a warm cuddle or a loving home. You could adopt one of them. If Lila opened her doors for 300 dogs, maybe you could welcome one into your life? The joy and contentment is immense. Try it.